Students & Youth Rights

The Florida Constitution calls for a “uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools.” The ACLU of Florida believes that schools are not constitutional dead zones, and yet students are often subjected to unreasonable searches, restrictions on their First Amendment rights, discrimination, and harassment. And more than fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, many students of color continue to struggle in inadequate schools.

The ACLU of Florida works to ensure that all young people in Florida are given the same rights and dignity to which they are entitled. Whether it’s fighting threats to a student’s individual liberty in the form of public schools promoting particular religious beliefs, or the school-to-prison pipeline that denies students opportunities to thrive, or any other law or policy that threatens the rights of students or young people in Florida, the ACLU of Florida works to ensure that students aren’t forced to shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.